Catholicism and stress

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Conversion doesn’t mean separating yourself from others. It means being a person of faith even while being among them. If your faith causes them to reject you, forgive them, pray for them and move on. If you are rejecting them, it’s the opposite of what Christ calls us to be for them. I’m not talking about doing what they do if it’s immoral or illegal. Cults force their members to reject their family and friends. Catholicism never demands this.

Preferring your study of the Catechism over being friends with people, is problematic. Why can’t you do both ?

You can’t study the Catechism every moment of everyday, so why reject your friends for that ?
If you can’t love them, all the learning of the Catechism will do nothing for you spiritually. God can give you the wisdom of a doctor of theology in thirty seconds, if this is what he desires for you. So, just accept what God brings into your life with love and patience.

The cloistered monks teach that they don’t separate themselves from men in order to be away from them, but rather, to learn how to live with them as a Christians.

This should be the fruit of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Jim
 
Christ told us over and over to be not afraid or troubled, to cast our cares on Him, that His yoke is easy and His burden light.
 
Sometimes I feel stressed because praying seems like a chore or I have a hard time getting to daily Mass because I’m tired or the Mass schedule does not jive very well with my other responsibilities for the day. When I was young I was sometimes stressed by feeling I couldn’t and didn’t want to conform to the concept of a “good Catholic” that someone else like my mom or a social justice activist or other people in my parish seemed to be pushing at that time.

However, it sounds like your stress is coming more from sexual stuff and people you know who are bugging you. If you can’t easily just distance yourself from these people, maybe talk to a priest about how to handle it.
 
I’d suggest Fr Phillipe’s powerful work “Searching For and Maintaining Peace”
 
Rob2 said:
If being a Catholic adds stress to one’s life it is being lived wrongly .
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You’re not kidding. If your faith does not bring abundant joy and inner peace into your live, even in the face of adversity, then you are not practicing it correctly.
 
SIRACH 2:1-9 ~ If you seek to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for an ordeal
 
klmt123 said:
So you don’t feel like one must be set apart or separated from most of the world when trying to stay on a good path?
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Of course, but this has been a great relief to me.
klmt123 said:
Or like one must work at salvation?
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This is just a misunderstanding of the faith. What we are to do is cooperate with His grace.

“…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Philip. 2

We don’t work “on” it, or “at” it so much as we cooperate with the grace that is already at work within us. We work out what He has already worked within.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God— 9 not because of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Eph. 2

God, by grace, through faith, works in and through us that for which He has made us. He is in us making us to will and to do. All we need to do is yield to His grace.
klmt123 said:
Especially in a sexually saturated world like this is. I find that being a single Catholic convert is difficult and that I need to be separate from non practicing catholics, for my own salvation.
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This is a sad fact. May God grant you spiritual fellowship and companionship that will support your sincere desire for chastity, purity, and an upright conscience.
 
klmt123 said:
I want to be separated from everyone. The things I have interest in learnimg are nothing anyone I used to know would be interested in. When you convert arent you supposed to be separated from your past? My stress is coming from people I used to know that I have nothibg to do with anymore and they’re not understanding. I’d rather study Catholicism than be friends with them.
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Are you a recent convert? If so then conversion can definitely cause stress. You are different and therefore your relationships with others will be different. You may need to separate from past relationships, but that isn’t the case with all relationships. In life sometimes friends come and go. As our priorities change so can our friendships.
AndrewAxland said:
You’re not kidding. If your faith does not bring abundant joy and inner peace into your live, even in the face of adversity, then you are not practicing it correctly.
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That isn’t always the case. There are people who struggle with sadness and depression. I don’t think they are all failing in practicing their faith.
 
klmt123 said:
I’d rather study Catholicism than be friends with them.
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Then do so! Find out what faith formation your diocese has. Plan to join RCIA this Fall as a sponsor and accompany someone on their faith journey.

If you have the time, take some online courses in Catholicism.

God is calling you away from those worldly interests into Kingdom interests.
klmt123 said:
I want to be separated from everyone.
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I don’t know if you are available for this, but you might want to talk to a vocations director about making a monastic retreat.
klmt123 said:
I have no energy to be the light of the world.
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This is not a bad place to be, really. Our call to be light and salt to the world is only fulfilled by Jesus lighting through us, not by our own light. When we become less, He becomes more!
 
klmt123 said:
Does anyone feel like being Catholic adds a lot more stress on their lives? Like being a good Catholic is a job within itself?
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Yes.

Mark 10
29 Jesus answering, said: Amen I say to you, there is no man who hath left house or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 Who shall not receive an hundred times as much, now in this time; houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions: and in the world to come life everlasting.
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John 15
18 If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you. 19 If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 20 Remember my word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for my name’s sake: because they know not him who sent me. 22 If I had not come, and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no other man hath done, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But that the word may be fulfilled which is written in their law: They hated me without cause.
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Well do you think its appropriate to be out getting drunk at a club every weekend, DRESSING provacatively With music that is full of lyrics that are bad such as drugs, money and sex and everyone just looking for someone to sleep with for the night or is it better to stay home by yourself in comfy clothes with your dog , a good spiritual book and watch crime shows?
 
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klmt123 said:
Especially in a sexually saturated world like this is. I find that being a single Catholic convert is difficult and that I need to be separate from non practicing catholics, for my own salvation.
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Yes, it is true. For one thing, there is the commandment that if you look at a woman with lust, then you have already committed the mortal sin of adultery. I find it very difficult to avoid this mortal sin of adultery because of the way that many non-Muslim women are dressed. And with the displays all over the place in movies on youtube and other entertainment venues, the way that many women are dancing etc can serve to arouse feeling of lust which is then a mortal sin of adultery.
 
klmt123 said:
Well do you think its appropriate to be out getting drunk at a club every weekend, DRESSING provacatively With music that is full of lyrics that are bad such as drugs, money and sex and everyone just looking for someone to sleep with for the night or is it better to stay home by yourself in comfy clothes with your dog , a good spiritual book and watch crime shows?
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Look up “false dichotomy”. This is such a perfect example that I am clipping it to use in class. I couldn’t have come up with a better one.
 
There is a such thing as false happiness. I’d rather choose to be more holy, and worry about pleasing God with my choice of actions, things I read, attending mass, who I spend my time with, how I dress , etc
 
False happiness is not the happiness Christ brings.

False happiness collapses over time

Not so the happiness Christ brings.

Jim
 
So I’m not sure what you’re looking for from us ?

We’re not the one to bring you peace and happiness.

If you’re seeking it by joining a religion, you’ll be mislead to other religions as well as Catholicism.

If you’re seeking faith, then turn to the source of faith, Jesus Christ.

Jim
 
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